My faithful little Saturn station wagon is closing in on 100,000 miles! It’s a 1997, bought only slightly used, with less than 18,000 miles on it when I got it in – was it 1998 or '99? Anyway, it’s been a reliable beast of burden for me, cheap to keep, rarely needing work, and to this day getting over 30 mpg even in local driving. I’ve hauled all sorts of stuff in it, including bales of hay. It’s not at its best in snow but it does all right and it always starts, no matter how cold the weather. The radio’s good, the heater/AC still work fine, and all in all it’s held up damned well.
My mechanic says it’s good for at least another 50,000 miles. Yippee!
My current Saturn (the 3rd I’ve owned) is a 2001 L300 and it’s about to turn 140,000 miles. My previous, a '97 SL2 went to just over 150,000, and my first, a 94 SL2 went to about 130,000. I don’t agree with the reliability thing, though. I’ve had electrical and mechanical problems with all 3 that I’d never had on any other vehicle. My next car will likely be a Toyota or Honda. Unless I win the lottery (unlikely, since I never play) and then it will be something worth slightly more than my house.
My 1995 Lexus ES 300 is about to hit the 292,000 milestone next week. I’m hoping I can take it to 350 K. Or until the daughters get out of school, anyway.
Driving it into a ditch during the snowstorm last Wednesday didn’t seem to harm it too much. I hate those low speed crashes, where you know it is inevitable, it just takes so long to happen!
Whoa, Qadgop, I’d love to see my car make it that far, but that would be asking a lot of my little cheapy.
I must have lucked out with mine, Rhubarb, since I’ve read in Consumer Reports and some on-line car-rating sites that Saturns do have reliability problems. It’s true, the back window wiper seized up a year ago and now is pretty much useless, and recently the horn died. A year ago the car needed the brakes done. But that’s about it for stuff crapping out on me.
Perhaps it’s held up so well because most of my driving is local. I notice you’ve put high mileage on your cars in a much shorter period than it’s taken me to get near six figures.
Or maybe it serves me so faithfully because I pat the dashboard now and then and tell it what a good little car it is.
Pffft. I got a Subie that’s running 178k right now, and she’s only the last in a line of Suburus that I’ve taken comfortably into the mid-six digits with only basic maintanence and minimal repairs. (We’ll ignore then POC Justy, which barely made 34k before the engine bearings wore out.)
The ex-Irish Girl did have a Saturn that was working on it’s 200k rollover last I heard, but I have to say that I was less than pleased about certain aspects of the mechanical layout and the heater core that would almost literally roast the front passenger’s feet. Still, it’s better than the old GM sh***y way of doing things, which is to build a car that starts flinging away vital pieces of the powertrain at 60k/3 years.
At this point, I’d feel downright cheated by any car that didn’t at least make it to 200k without suffering some major mechanical malfunction. Don’t even mention Triumphs or Jaguars in my presence if you wish to retain your favorable impression of those companies.
I had a 1994 Saturn SL1 that I bought brand new and by 1996 had 120,000 miles. I traded it for a Dodge Avenger, which was the worst mistake I ever made.
My 97 SL-1 (w/stick) had 177,000, the original clutch and finally just DIED in the left express lane of the Dan Ryan at 1 pm on a weekday at 70 mph while I was surrounded by speeding traffic.
The 97 Camry right now has 158,000 and still runs like grease.
My 1996 Tercel is going to hit 240000km (just under 150000 miles) this week. I drive about 600km a week on one tank of gas (about 40L every time I fill up) and I’ve never had any problems with it other than the usual maintenance and repairs/replacement of “wear-and-tear” components. I keep good tires on it, and get regular oil changes, and it has very little rust (both my brother and father have had tercels in the past and they rusted significantly - mine has some on the wheel wells, but not much else). I keep saying I’m going to buy a new car, but there’s nothing wrong with this one! My dad pushed his to 350000+km, I’m sure I can do the same, if I bother!
Pfft. I have 231,000 miles on an '86 Suzuki Samurai. That’s right, the second car ever to get Consumer Report’s coveted “unsafe at any speed” rating. Of course, the front grill long ago fell off and was replaced by metal mes, but that just adds to the punk-assedness of this car.
My 2003 Dodge Neon is undergoing a mid-life crisis and the mechanic has let me rent his '94 Saturn wagon. Now I recall why I would not buy one when I test drove a Saturn back in the late 90s. The damn thing tries to take the top of my head off when I get in or out of the car! I am only five foot eight and I pity anyone taller than me for the horrible contortions he would have to get through to get his head under the roof as he tries to struggle in or out of the car.
Once inside it’s not bad. Decent acceleration, good handling. It’s entering or exiting that’s a bitch.
Hey, I’m 5 foot 7 and yes, you do have to duck to get in, but once you’re used to it it’s a no-brainer.
Actually, one reason I bought this car is that my mother could get into it. She was so crippled with arthritis that she couldn’t pick her feet up enough to get into a taller vehicle, but she could maneuver into my relatively lowslung Saturn without too much trouble.
Congratulations EddyTeddyFreddy! I just retired by '94 SL2 last month (well, actually it retired itself…I just helped by refusing to fix it one more time). But, it did go 232,000 miles with just routine maintenance and the occassional larger fix (clutch, gaskets, rotors, etc.), although the “fixes” were starting to come along as regular as my 10 am bowel movement there towards the end. I bought it in 1995 with 12,000 miles because the Honda dealer next door wouldn’t give me the time of day. I don’t know that I would buy one again but I don’t have any complaints.
I bought my Saturn after asking a car mechanic what economy model station wagons he considered reliable. Then I waylaid some Saturn drivers to ask them how they liked the car. The no-haggling part of the sales experience was a bonus.
Less than two miles to go! It’ll turn over to six digits later tonight when I run down to the barn to feed my horse.